Background and Aims: In humans the group A rotaviruses are associated with endemic diarrhea in children under the age of 5, leading to approximately 800,000 deaths every year. Introduction of rotavirus vaccines into childhood immunization programs can contribute to substantial reduction in mortality from rotavirus gastroenteritis in developing countries and virtually eliminating hospitalization...

Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium is a versatile host organism for the generation of recombinant live vaccines for mucosal immunization. We investigated the performance of an intracellular-activated promoter for expression of heterologous antigens by Salmonella carrier strains. We observed that intracellular expressed antigens were more efficient in elicitation of humoral and cellular imm...

The uniqueness of the dengue viruses (DENVs) and the spectrum of disease resulting from infection have made dengue vaccine development difficult. Several vaccine candidates are currently being evaluated in clinical studies. The candidate currently at the most advanced clinical development stage, a live-attenuated tetravalent vaccine based on the chimeric yellow fever-dengue virus (CYD-TDV), has...

Influenza vaccines can be categorized in two basic groups—live, which contain small amounts of live, attenuated (weakened) influenza viruses, and inactivated, which contain either whole influenza viruses or subunits of viruses. Only inactivated influenza viruses are licensed for general use in the United States; therefore, this discussion of vaccine safety and efficacy pertains exclusively to i...

BACKGROUND Live vaccines against measles (MV), tuberculosis (BCG), polio (OPV) and smallpox reduce mortality more than explained by target-disease prevention. The beneficial nonspecific effects (NSEs) of MV are strongest when MV is given in presence of maternal antibodies. We therefore hypothesised that revaccination in presence of prior immunity enhances beneficial NSEs. METHODS Literature s...

This study aims to quantify clinical and economic burden of rotavirus (RV) infection pre- and post-vaccine introduction in commercially insured and Medicaid populations. Beneficiaries with continuous enrollment for ≥6 months while <5 years of age were identified separately in commercial (2000-2010) and Medicaid (2002-2009) claims databases. Commercial and Medicaid databases included 3,998,708 a...

To assess the viability of discarded and buried vaccine strains, we examined vaccines that had been buried for >20 years in an industrial waste dump in the city of Milan, Italy. Viability results showed potential biological risk associated with uncontrolled burial of pharmaceutical industry waste, including some live vaccines.

Patients with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMID) such as RA, IBD or psoriasis, are at increased risk of infection, partially because of the disease itself, but mostly because of treatment with immunomodulatory or immunosuppressive drugs. In spite of their elevated risk for vaccine-preventable disease, vaccination coverage in IMID patients is surprisingly low. This review summarizes cu...

Live-virus vaccines activate both humoral and cell-mediated immunity, require only a single boosting, and generally provide longer immune protection than killed or subunit vaccines. However, growth of live-virus vaccines must be attenuated to minimize their potential pathogenic effects, and mechanisms of attenuation by conventional serial-transfer viral adaptation are not well-understood. New m...

Vaccination is the most effective method of preventing infectious diseases. Since the eradication of small pox in 1976, many other potentially life compromising if not threatening diseases have been dealt with subsequently. This event was a major leap not only in the scientific world already burdened with many diseases but also in the mindset of the common man who became more receptive to novel...